Wolves’ draw to Burnley last night reinforced the Old Gold’s need to recruit in the summer, with one area desperately needing attention ahead of the 2024/25 campaign.
It was always going to be difficult for Wolves to overcome Burnley at Turf Moor given their injury woes paired with the Clarets’ desperation to fight for survival.
At the end of the 90 minutes, a draw was a fair result for Gary O’Neil’s side to walk away with, having come from behind to secure a point away from home.
Vincent Kompany was less happy with the result as he argued one key moment of the match that saw Rayan Ait-Nouri cancel out Jacob Bruun Larsen’s opener.
While the fixture didn’t end in a loss for the Old Gold, there will be some considerable concerns to take from the game, as the squad’s lack of depth was glaringly obvious.
Wolves struggled with no presence to lead the line
For the chances that Wolves created, there was no end result aside from Ait-Nouri’s goal, reinforcing how badly O’Neil needs a striker to see his squad develop any further next season.
It was an extremely difficult night for academy gem Leon Chiwome, who secured only his third senior appearance in a match with high stakes for both sides.
The frailties of the wholly underdeveloped teen’s game were exposed as he struggled to absorb the momentum of the fixture, seeing him described as being “way out of his depth” by journalist Nathan Judah.
A similar description can be made of fellow academy jewel Nathan Fraser who has also been called into action this season, with his effort and desire not having the power to eliminate the obvious lack of experience in his game.
It’s not criticism for the two players, who have been thrown in at the deep end at the top level however, O’Neil found himself at a dead end with no other option but to take a chance on youth.
Fosun must support Gary O’Neil to solve Wolves’ squad depth issue
After the game, the manager expressed his concerns over the lack of depth in quality in Wolves’ squad.
“Unfortunately, the club were not in a position to be able to help us with that due to financial reasons.”
“We had a Premier League number nine lined up to come in and help us and a fairly small amount of money stopped us doing it.”
“The situation the club is in is showing now. You can see now why the aim at the start of the season was to stay in the Premier League.”
It’s extremely concerning to hear O’Neil speaking with such concern, considering the words that Julen Lopetegui spoke before he left in the summer due to the lack of squad depth.
Taking into consideration the performance of Chiwome last night, and earlier performances of Fraser, it’s glaring evident that the duo need to experience senior football away from Molineux to get up to speed.
The issue is that in the situation that Wolves are in financially, O’Neil requires the youngsters simply as bodies, reflecting on where Fosun must support the manager in the summer before it’s too late.
Fosun must pay attention to the Old Gold’s shortfallings despite their success this season, with the need for a striker in the summer critical, particularly to ensure the capacity is there to allow youngsters such as Fraser and Chiwome to flourish elsewhere on loan.
If the club fail to support O’Neil’s hunt for a new striker, the Englishman could find himself in a similar situation to Lopetegui, who felt there was no other solution but to walk away from his role.